Spencer Luckey, of Luckey Climbers, a playground designer, next to one of his creations at the Foote School in New Haven.

Spencer Luckey, of Luckey Climbers, a playground designer, next to one of his creations at the Foote School in New Haven.

Photo: Hearst Connecticut Media File

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A concept sketch of a Luckey Climber for Millennium Plaza in New Haven behind City Hall.

A concept sketch of a Luckey Climber for Millennium Plaza in New Haven behind City Hall.

Photo: Contributed Photo / Spencer Luckey

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Sculptural Luckey Climber could be downtown amenity; Millennium Plaza work needed first

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NEW HAVEN — A Luckey Climber, a 3D vertical maze, is coming closer to being a reality for New Haven with work scheduled this spring to fix a leaking Millennium Plaza where it likely would be located.

Architect Eric Epstein, who has been laying the groundwork for the project, poke about it to the Downtown Wooster Square Community Management Team Tuesday night.

The specifics of the design, community input and fundraising all have to be firmed up, but preparing for it as the Millennium space is repaired will make the project proceed more smoothly.

As the city waterproofs beneath the pink concrete space behind City Hall next to the federal plaza, the plan would be to keep the template of the climber in mind and incorporate the necessary attachments as the work is being done on the surface.

Architect Thomas Luckey came up with the original concept and built the climber at the Boston Children’s Museum in 1984, a project that advanced his career.

Spencer Luckey, his son, now runs the business, which designs the 30-foot to 60-foot sculptures in an industrial space close by on Chapel Street, from where they have been shipped around the world to 16 countries.

Epstein said it makes sense to coordinate the climber foundation with the necessary repairs to the plaza.

“After that it becomes installation furniture in a prepared plaza,” Epstein said of putting in the actual sculpture.

He said somewhere along the way in these discussions, the Pincus Foundation stepped up and said it might cover half of the cost.

“This is still just a glimmer in a parent’s eye, but the forces seem to be coming together that might actually bring something like this to City Hall plaza,” Epstein told the group.

Spencer Luckey, in an earlier story in the New Haven Register, said his father had always hoped to put up a public climber in New Haven. The company has installed two climbers at the private Foote School, which Spencer Luckey and several of his staff members attended as children.

The waterproofing will take place in February, March and April and Epstein hopes that late 2018 or sometime in early 2019, a pocket park with this climbing sculpture for children could become a reality.

Alex Esdaile, an engineer with Turner Construction, and Jennifer Waldron, a landscape architect with Stantec, would be consultants to the project, Epstein said. Waldron would be the master planner who would lead the public discussion as to what residents would want to see there.

All the hiring will be done by the city, Epstein said.

Epstein said years ago, when City Hall was being renovated, architect Paul Rudolph looked at the Millennium Plaza area as a good location for a new 5-story library.

The space was capped and waterproofed for the future. It is that waterproofing under the concrete that now needs to be torn up and replaced.

Epstein said Mayor Toni Harp has encouraged the project to advance after discussing it with Luckey, Doug Hausladen, who heads the city’s Transportation, Traffic and Parking Department; city Engineer Giovanni Zinn; and then-City Planner Karyn Gilvarg.

It is seen as an amenity for downtown where there are more and more residences being built.

After the meeting, the one question was how safe it is for children to climb.

Epstein said throughout there is stainless steel netting with drops not deeper than 18 inches.

Luckey has said in 30 years there has never been an incident involving their sculptures.

“They have been vetted by safety agencies all over the world and we always pass with flying colors. The only way this business survives is by a fastidious attention to detail,” Luckey said in the earlier interview.